The Anti-Trans State Of The States

There have been over 270 bills targeting transgender people moving across the country. This February 4th update will help you get a general lay of the land.

Photo by Ian Tuck on Unsplash

Tracking all of the bills moving all over the country is a lot right now. I do this for a living and even I can get lost in anti-trans legislation. I have a veritable stable of activists and legislators in every state sending me daily information about new bills being introduced, new tactics being tried, and committee hearings scheduled at moment’s notice. With over 270 bills - it’s a lot to keep track of.

So that’s why I wanted to take this chance to give all of my readers a bit of a zoomed out, 40,000 foot view of where we stand with all the legislation moving across the country. There are a few narratives that are emerging in how the bills are progressing. Some places are looking particularly cruel - Tennessee, North Dakota, and Florida all come to mind. Healthcare bills are moving in over 23 states and represent the most common type of anti-trans bills. Drag bans are likewise fairly popular bills among right wing legislators, although we just saw our first victory in Arkansas - no drag ban has passed a state legislature yet.

We also have some positive movement in some states. Washington, California, Minnesota, and Maryland are just a few states that have seen bills drafted that would protect transgender people. In Minnesota, we have their first transgender representative, Rep. Leigh Finke, to thank for that. Rep. Finke submitted a safe state bill that would protect transgender people who are fleeing all of the states passing harmful anti-trans legislation.

So with that, I will lay out a few important areas to help you make sense of the current landscape:

Healthcare Bans Imminent

The most important big picture item to focus on right now is the healthcare bans. These bans would remove gender affirming care from any transgender youth up to the age of 18. This treatment is life-saving. Research articles show that by obtaining gender affirming care, trans youth have a reduced suicide risk of 73%. Withdrawing that care would be extremely traumatic to these trans youth, and that’s what we are seeing working through each of these states.

The following states are working healthcare bans through the legislatures. I have their bills linked in case you want to contact your local representatives about them. Each of these states have seen hearings and watched as the bill passed through committee, or in the case of Wyoming, Mississippi, and West Virginia, the bills have passed through an entire legislative chamber. These bills are in addition to Utah, Arkansas, and Alabama, which have already passed bans:

• Florida - A medical board has voted to ban gender affirming care and strip doctors licenses. They will meet February 10th to finalize the rule.

• Mississippi - A gender affirming care ban for under 18s, the REAP act, would ban gender affirming care for under 18s, remove medicaid coverage, and more. This passed Mississippi’s House and is going to the Senate.

• Missouri - Several gender affirming care bans are moving through the legislature, and multiple hearings have happened.

• Montana - A gender affirming care ban for under 18s and general medicaid ban. This passed Montana’s Senate Judiciary Committee and will head for a full Senate vote.

• Tennessee - House Bill 1/Senate Bill 1 is the very first bill that Tennessee put forward. That shows what priority anti-trans legislation is. HB1/SB1 is the worst bill currently moving through the legislature - it would define gender affirming care as child abuse and take trans kids from parents.

• West Virginia - House Bill 2007, which bans gender affirming care for all trans youth, just passed the House and is moving on to the sSenate.

• Wyoming - SF0111. This bill defines gender affirming care as child abuse, and while it is provider-targeted, Wyoming has accessory laws. If the state finds trans kids to be “abused,” they could easily move to take them from their parents.

Drag Bans Moving A Little Slower

Drag bans seem to be moving through the United States a little more slowly than the healthcare bans. Legislatures seem a little bit more timid to take up the bills and push them through committee. These bills often have a few elements to them. First, they define “drag” as exhibiting a gender identity other than your assigned sex at birth. This means that these bans also include transgender people. Secondly, they target performance… usually this targeting is extremely broad but typically includes “singing, dancing, or monologuing.” Lastly, they usually (but not always) specify that the performer be exhibiting “prurient interest,” which essentially means “relating to sexual matters.” Prurient is a very vague term that has been interpreted in the past to include LGBTQ+ people merely existing.

While there are 13 states currently considering drag bans, only two have seen drag bans make it out of the committee they were introduced in: Arizona and Arkansas. While Arizona’s ban is unlikely to pass into law - the governor would almost certainly veto such a bill - Arkansas ban was looking to more easily move through. SB43 in Arkansas passed the Senate 29-6. In the House, it was stopped through a mixture of heavy activism and the governor informing the bill’s sponsor in the House that they didn’t think it was defensible in court. They heavily amended the bill to be a public nudity bill. Though it no longer targets the trans community, provisions are still very broad and organizations are still fighting. You can watch this beautiful video of Arkansas activists singing seasons of love on the Arkansas Capitol Building steps.

Right now, several other states are still considering harmful drag bills. Places like West Virginia, Montana, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Kansas all have very harmful versions of the bill moving through their legislatures and committees. West Virginia’s bill, for instance, would ban “transgender exposure” to youth. These extreme bills were frightening when they were introduced, but activists in Arkansas showed us that they could be beaten. We’ll need to continue tracking the bills as they move through those states.

Other Bills Are Progressing

Although healthcare bans and drag bans are the primary sorts of bills that are making their way around the country, bills that may not inspire as much outrage are sneaking through. Utah just passed SB100, a bill that would likely result in transgender youth being outed to their parents. Arkansas just passed HB1156 which would ban schools from inclusive restroom policies and the bill now goes to the Senate. Montana just passed HB303 out of committee, which would allow medical providers to refuse care to people if they are LGBQT+. There are over a hundred bills that are novel and target the community in different ways and while no centralized tracking system works well for them, they are important to stay on top of.

I cover these bills when they come up for hearings on my twitter account. Whenever they come up for hearings, you can be sure that I will blast the calls to action. Any time you see them, make sure to have your state representative and state senators contact information saved so you can reach out to them. Even if they are opposed to transgender rights, letting them know there is pushback could make further action feel politically risky. My favorite site to find the contact info is Datamade as you can also get their social handles.

There Are Good Bills Too

There are a huge number of good bills moving through legislatures as well. Some bills like HB283 in Maryland would give modern standards of care to all transgender Maryland Medicaid recipients. It would allow those on medicaid to get things like facial feminization surgery and hair removal. These procedures are essential care for many trans people and only covered in 3 states. Other states have bills moving through that would make name changes and birth certificate changes easier and more private, like California’s Transgender Youth Privacy Act. The biggest kind of legislation that protects the community that seems to be passing, though, are Safe State laws.

Safe State laws work by telling local authorities that they are not to comply with out of state subpoenas for gender affirming care or for abortion care. These laws range from being “soft” to “hard.” “Soft” bills essentially banning out of state legal interference with care that occurs within their state borders - essentially protecting things like telehealth and mail order providers as well as trans people that go across state lines to obtain their care. “Hard” bills will protect even people who are being charged with crimes around gender affirming care from being extradited back to their home states. Though there are some constitutional questions raised by these bills - we literally may begin to see transgender “fugitives” protected by these states in ways that haven’t been tested in a long time - states see an opportunity to protect their transgender citizens.

This year, Illinois passed a safe state bill known as the Patient and Provider Protection Act. Massachusetts, California, and Washington D.C. all have similar acts that have passed. Currently, Minnesota is hearing such a bill that has been pushed forward by Representative Leigh Finke, the first trans representative of the state. Washington is similarly hearing a Safe State bill. You can watch one father’s powerful testimony on the Minnesota bill here.

Future Outlook

Several states are making moves towards joining the “worst of the worst” anti-trans states on my risk assessment map. These states are pushing bills that are abjectly cruel to transgender people. Utah is the most recent addition planned for when my next update to that map comes out. It will take intense pressure and testimony to convince many of these states to turn around. Should these bills pass into the legislature, they will be fought in court - Utah has already seen its first legal challenge. Other states like Minnesota, California, Illinois, and Washington have seen moves to protect their transgender populations. I will keep reporting on all of this on this newsletter to keep you all informed. Be sure to follow me on Twitter and TikTok to get up to the minute updates in case I need to send out faster calls to action!